If you are like most life coaches, you got into this business to help people. In the beginning, you didn’t think much about making money because you would coach for free if you had the means to otherwise get by. But, like everyone else, you have bills to pay and you want to be valued and respected as a professional. One way to measure that value is by your income.

Over the last few years, we have spoken to thousands of coaches, everyone from the wealthy to those just starting out. From those conversations, we’ve discovered the following business building facts that you need to know, whether you’re a life coach, business coach, or career coach.

Fact #1 - Coach training schools teach you how to coach, not how to build a business

Very few coach training schools will go into any depth at all to teach you how to build your business. The fact is there are relatively few jobs for coaches. And if you compare coaching to accounting, or law, there are no coaching firms that you can walk into upon graduation to do your practical training.

Therefore, if you are new to coaching or still struggling to get clients, you need to accept and embrace the fact that you need to make it happen and learn business building skills.

Fact #2 - The coaching industry has huge potential for growth

There’s a an old story about two shoe salespeople that went to Africa. When they came back the first salesperson said:

“Nobody wears shoes in Africa. Let’s not waste our time trying to sell them shoes.”

The second salesperson said:

“Nobody wears shoes in Africa. There is a huge opportunity to get them to buy shoes.”

Coaching is similar. There are millions and millions of people who could benefit from coaching but very few of them have ever experienced coaching. It is both a challenge and an opportunity.

The challenge is that people need to be educated about the value of coaching. The opportunity is that the industry could easily double or triple and still have room for growth.

Which salesperson philosophy do you subscribe to? I would argue that unless you see the opportunity in the marketplace, you should not bother trying to build a coaching business.

Fact #3 - Nobody wants to buy coaching but they do need help

What percentage of the people around you could benefit from coaching? 70%? 80%? 90%? I’ve asked that question to dozens of coaches and the answer is almost always more than 80%. And yet, what percentage of the people around you have experienced coaching? Usually the answer is less than 5%.

Why the gap? Because coaching is NOT like plumbing. When people have a leak in their house, they immediately think to hire a plumber. When they are “stuck” in their life, rarely do they think to hire a coach. When it comes to coaching, the coupling between the problem and the solution is weak. However, millions of people are searching for solutions to their existing problems. You just need to teach them that coaching is a viable solution.

This is a marketing problem and it can be solved in a number of different ways that we are going to be teaching you in our soon-to-be launched Noomii business building program. (Subscribe to this blog to make sure you get notified when we roll out the program. Click the “subscribe” link in the top right of this page.)

Fact #4 - You can use your coaching skills to build your coaching business

There are some fundamental business concepts that you need to learn but the good news is that you can leverage your skills as a coach to market your services. For starters, you need to be hugely curious to be a good marketer. The best marketers in the world never assume they know what clients want or need. Instead, they develop theories and then test them out.

The other skill that comes in handy when you build your business is relationship building. Every prospect that reaches out to you is not a number on a spreadsheet but a human being with real feelings, vulnerabilities, and goals. If you can tap into that and demonstrate a great level of care and respect over time, people will hire you. It might take time but that’s okay too. Isn’t that a coaching principle?! To honor the client, wherever they are.

There are more skills that you will use such as building rapport, asking for permission, goal setting, and more.

Fact #5 - Building a coaching business takes time

Building a successful coaching business is not a get-rich-quick scheme. Sure, you can make a lot of money but it often takes years of consistent effort to get to the point where clients are coming to you and you have to turn them down or refer them to other coaches.

First, you need to have the right business mindset to be successful, then, you need to get out there and market your services. There are many ways to do that and this blog is dedicated to teaching you how. Um, did you subscribe yet?

Fact #6 - There is a huge difference between the coaches that can secure clients once they get them on the phone and those that can not

Through the Noomii referral program, we have to come to learn that there are some coaches that can consistently “close the sale” and others that struggle with it no matter how many leads we send them. Even when two coaches have similar backgrounds and training, they may perform quite differently during the initial sample session with clients.

If you are struggling at closing the sale (i.e. converting leads to paying customers), we have an immediate solution for you. We have partnered with the BEST coach on our referral program and he is offering Noomii coaches a 45-minute free consultation to review your business and your enrollment conversation. Click on the button below now.

Sign me up for a free consultation
with the BEST coach on the Noomii Referral Program

Fact #7 - You can have the coaching business you want and earn a six-figure income while you’re at it

You can reach coaching nirvana. What is coaching nirvana? This is the place that most coaches want to get to. They want to maintain a full roster of clients without having to do the marketing. They want to sit in their office regularly fielding calls from prospective clients. They even want to be at the place where they are turning down great fitting clients because their practice is full. Wouldn’t that be awesome!

It is possible. Many coaches have reached coaching nirvana. You can too. We've mapped out how to do it in a step-by-step system that will be launched and included in the price of an annual Noomii subscription. Subscribe to be the first to find out when it is available.